New Moon News

Katie Bain of Hollywood.com reveals more details of her trip to the ‘New Moon’ set. This time we get a  minute by minute, play by play of her visit.

May 7, 2009, 3:04PM The Vancouver afternoon is wet and gloomy. The peaks of the North Shore Mountains are obscured in fog. This is weather that might lure out a vampire. Or so I hope. I’m in Vancouver to find them.

Amid the gas stations, superstores and baseball fields of the industrial south side of the city is Vancouver Sound Studios. Our van rolls into the parking lot, and suddenly, I am at the epicenter of a worldwide sensation and a billion teenage (and middleage and every other age) fantasies.

This is the set of New Moon.

3:36PM Our passes for the day say “USM,” for “Untitled Sports Movie.” Seems New Moon, which has been filming here and around Vancouver since March 23, is a major covert operation.

3:37PM The five other reporters and I are escorted onto Stage B. The soundstage is a massive warehouse filled by a nearly-as-massive set. On its outside, the structure looks like a plywood shell, but a glimpse through the door reveals an ornate marble palace very similar in appearance to an traditional Italian cathedral. I have entered the Volturri lair.

3:40PM A bank of monitors display what New Moon director Chris Weitz is filming on the other side of the wall. Onscreen now are Dakota Fanning and Cameron Bright, both Twilight Saga newbies, sporting deathly pallors and red contact lenses. The pretty woman with the long glossy hair sitting to my right is Stephenie Meyer. The only way I could get closer to central command of the Twilight universe would be to climb on her lap and ask her to tell me a story.

…. 4:15PM Stewart, Pattinson and Greene film a scene with the Volturri. It goes (more or less) like this:

[Bella, Alice and Edward, who wears a long maroon cloak, stand near the entrance of the ornate room. Aro steps off the dias towards our daring trio.]

Aro: What a happy surprise. Bella is alive after all. I love a happy ending. They’re so rare. La tua cantante(Italian for “your song”). It makes me thirsty. Her blood appeals to me. How do you stand to be so close to her?

Edward: It’s not without its difficulties. (RP says this with intensity).

Aro: So now you know everything. Fascinating. I’d love to see if you are an exception to my gift as well. Would you do me the honor?

[Aro seems to meditate on Bella.]

Interesting. I see nothing. I wonder if — let’s see if she’s immune to all of our powers, shall we Jane?

Katie Bain’s coverage is TOTALLY ENJOYABLE (with AWESOME DETAILS) cos you feel you were there with her!! Read more in her 12 PAGE article : Vampires in Vancouver – All Details of our New Moon set visit.

Of the 12 page article interviews were done among others with Michael Sheen, Taylor Lautner, Rachelle LeFevre, Melissa Rosenberg and Charlie Bewley .

Here are excerpts from the interview with the cast & crew members.

Melissa Rosenberg, Screenwriter of The Twilight Saga

An All-About-the-Script Talk With Melissa Rosenberg (Hollywood.com)

How was writing New Moon different from Twilight?
Melissa Rosenberg: In Twilight, you’re setting up the world. You’re introducing the world, and I was also writing in a vacuum because I didn’t know who the actors were going to be. Now you’re going to New Moon and Eclipse, and I could write specifically to them in my mind. So it becomes a more comfortable world.

New Moon is not about setting up the world, but it’s its own set of challenges because New Moon is very internal … There’s been a lot of talk about how Edward and the Cullens are not a part of the middle of New Moon, but actually they are. Certainly Edward is very much alive in Bella’s mind throughout New Moon … I think fans will be very satisfied with what we’re doing — one, because it’s true to the book and two, because there’s more Edward. That can’t be bad!

Rachelle Lefevre plays Victoria in Summit's The Twilight Saga : New Moon

A Stunt-Heavy Interview With Rachelle Lefevre (Hollywood.com)

Will New Moon s action look the same as Twilight’s?
Rachelle Lefevre: It’s so much wirework. It’s so much actual doing-it. In terms of the look of it … I think Chris has approached things as it should be, a little rawer and a little more literally grounded.

I think it was very flighty in the first one, so when we were running fast it was almost like you weren’t touching the ground … I think he’s factored gravity in a little more than they did in the first film, so that might have a different look as a result.

On New Moon‘s underwater action:
RL: I spent six hours in a pool doing the underwater stuff. They did a really interesting thing where they did this amazing stunt with the bit where Bella gets caught in the tidal wave … I think it must have been 2,000 gallons of water in massive – they looked like huge, rectangular cargo containers you put on the back of trains.

First, they did it with a stunt double, and then they did it with Kristen’s photo double, and then they literally, on action, pulled the hatch and she got pummeled with a massive tidal wave and you could watch underwater, which I did because I was in the pool, or you could watch in the monitor. You could literally see her spinning, they created a tidal wave, and they literally filmed until she got spit out. And when it spit her out, the cut was over.

How will New Moon be different from Twilight?
RL: A lot of times when I ask fans, “What’s your favorite book?” people say Twilight. The reason I hear a lot is, “Well, it was my first entry into this world,” and it’s sort of like that first bit that you can never really get back. Your first time. So New Moon is kind of like you know who the characters are, you have some idea of where it’s going, particularly if you’ve read the books, and now what you get to do is watch the real struggle.

Now, nevermind figuring out who everyone is, figuring out who the actors are with who you had in your imagination vs. who they cast. All that is gone, and now all that is set, you get to watch a really horrifically gut-wrenching love triangle. And a real struggle. It’s so character-driven. They haven’t lost any of the actions sequences … but at its heart, I do think it’s becoming a coming-of-age story, more than just a boy-meets-girl romance, which was beautiful, but not as complicated as it gets now that Jacob is really in the mix.

Jamie Campbell Bower is Caius in Summit's The Twilight Saga : New Moon

A Totally Cool Chit-Chat With Jamie Campbell Bower (Hollywood.com)

What went into your research? Did you read the books? Did you get to talk Stephenie?
JCB: I haven’t had a long discussion with Stephenie. My plan is to have a long discussion with her at some point today. Maybe it won’t be a long discussion, maybe it will be like five minutes.

Yeah, I read the books and I did a lot of online research, because it’s good to know what people who’ve read the books think about the characters as well. Because the books alone have such a huge fan base. You’ve got to stay true to what people want to see, I think. So I did that and talked to lots of people. And my friends gave me their ideas as well.

Did they make you audition for the role?
JCB: They did! They did make me audition. Disgraceful, isn’t it. Shocking!

Did you read the books before you auditioned?
JCB: No, I didn’t read the books before I auditioned, no. I went off the sides. Once I got the role, I obviously read the books. My 15-year-old brother kind of sat me down and insisted. I went back to my mum, and she was like, “You’re going to read this, and you’re going to read it now!’ I was like, “OK, that’s cool.”

JJ Makaro, Stunt Coordinator for Summit's The Twilight Saga : New Moon

A Behind-the-Wires Talk With J.J. Makaro (Hollywood.com)

In the first movie, the goal was to make it more like a Hong Kong action-type thing. Are you going far away from that?
JM: Yeah, we’re trying to tone the Hong Kong aspect down and go more real. Going to the actors, we spent a lot of time talking to them about what their character would be and what kind of performance. Rather than teaching them how to fight in a particular style, we’re trying to adapt our fights to match their style that they already bring with them.

There aren’t a lot of fights on this show. Mostly it’s been about chasing or jumping and transition of being a human to wolf, and selling the fact that the wolf boys are something that we don’t quite understand yet.

Most challenging scene of this movie for you guys?
JM: I think in terms of complications, it’s going to be the fight. Like I say, we’re trying for something different. It’s kind of become cool, because we’ve given ourselves so many limitations that there’s only so many holes you can squeak out of to make it work, and its crated its own thing. It’s really exciting to see what it is.

What adjectives would you use to describe it?
JM: What we’re doing is trying to go inside the vampire world. Everybody always looks at it from the human world. So we see them hanging in the air. We see them doing all this stuff that we think of, but in reality, they’re way faster than us. So there’s a lot going on that we don’t normally see.

Swooning British-Accented Banter With Charlie Bewley(Hollywood.com)

Do you actually know Demetri’s backstory, based on what’s in the book?
CB: I made it up.

Tell us!
CB: Demetri was obviously Italian. And at a young age, he was orphaned. He was living in the foothills of Mt. Vesuvius – the big, volcanic mountain – and in 900 A.D., it erupts. Lava starts pouring down, and his parents get caught in it. Their house gets taken apart. I outrun the lava, into the foothills, where I found a place where I was safe, essentially. But I couldn’t provide for myself, so I was thrown into slavery. I went through various masters but they couldn’t pin me down, because I was so nonchalant and arrogant and just ran away from everyone; it was really frustrating. I kept getting sold on to the next guy – the next master, for the best price they could get – and I was too nice for someone just to kill me.

So eventually I got sold to a merchant trader in Rome, who dealt specifically in fighters, and I found myself in front of the Coliseum with these baying, bloodthirsty Romans, desperate for gladiatorial combat. I didn’t have any fighting skills, so I just ran around for three hours and no one could catch me – until somebody shot me with an arrow. I was lying on the floor, I was about to die, I was waiting for Commodus’ verdict of thumbs up or thumbs down, and he’s about to give it a down when Aro comes in and whispers in his ear and says, “Don’t kill him, I’ll take him.” Aro converts me in the depths of the Coliseum himself, and I’ve been working loyally for him ever since.

Katie Bain ends her AWESOME 12 page reveal with this:

This adventure is coming to a close. En route to the Vancouver airport, Rick, the teamster who’s been driving us around for two days, says that in his years of experience as a set driver, the Twilight pandemonium is one of the more unique things he’s seen.

“When you think about it,” he says, “It’s not really that different from the Beatles. And we’re here to see it. We’ve all been part of a moment.”

Fans and haters will say what they want about the books, the movies, the actors, the screaming girls, the rumored romances and everything else related to this nebulous universe of fanaticism, fame and fiction. Ultimately though, Twilight has wedged itself into our cultural consciousness as a pop culture phenomenon.

Rick is right. Whether we like, love it, or, like, really LOVE it, this is Twilight‘s moment.

Phew!! As promised earlier today, Hitfix has released some more of their interviews with The Twilight Saga : New Moon cast and crew members during their visit to the film location set in Vancouver in May. On this instalment, Hitflix has interviews with Taylor Lautner, Michael Sheen and Wyck Godfrey, one of the producers of the Twilight Saga.

Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black in Summit's The Twilight Saga : New Moon

Becoming a movie heartthrob is never easy and Taylor Lautner is handling it with as much patience and class that you could expect for a 17-year-old whose become instantly recognizable to almost every teenage girl in his peer group.  So, when this writer and a number of journalists visited the set of The Twilight Saga : New Moon in May, Lautner was kind enough to journey to the Vancouver studio during his offtime to chat about the highly-anticipated sequel.

Q: Can you describe the new movements you had to learn for your Wolf Pack scenes?

Well, I didn’t have anything to do with the Wolf Pack, but I did go through some dirt bike training, because I really hadn’t ridden before. So I had a couple lessons, so when they threw me on the bike I didn’t die. The biggest thing with Jacob’s physicality is, pre-transformation he’s described as clumsy, he trips over his own feet, he’s a little kid. Then, as soon as he transforms, he all of a sudden becomes very agile. So, it wasn’t certain movements or specific things I had to do, it’s just all of my movements together, even as simple as walking, had to have more of a presence, definitely easier than before.

Q: They said that for your Jacob the wolf scenes, they’re going to keep your eyes.

I believe so, because when Bella, all through the books, when she looks into the wolf’s face she sees Jacob’s eyes.

Q: What’s been your favorite scene to film so far?

Um…I’d either say, some cool action scene I got to do, because I really do like the action, or I really like the break up scene. We call it ‘the break up scene.’ It’s the first time Bella sees Jacob after he’s transformed. When she comes to his house, and she sees for the first time that his hair’s cut, he’s different, what’s up…?  And he tells her, ‘We shouldn’t be friends.’ It’s a really emotional scene.

For the complete interview, please read here.

During our visit to the Vancouver set of “New Moon” last May, Sheen took a brief break to talk to the small cadre of journalists peeping around the soundstage including this intrepid writer.  Last seen in a double bill of the Oscar-nominated “Frost/Nixon” and the genre flick “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans,” Frost was in full Volturi regalia in what we discovered was only his second day of shooting.   Saying it was great to be “thrown in the deep end” by arriving during the middle of production, Sheen had already shot a number of key scenes.

“The first day of filming we did the 18th century stuff and then one of the modern scenes,” Sheen says. “It was a lot to deal with; the wig, and contact lenses all day and the make-up, but it was fantastic. These sets are amazing. And the look of everyone is so strong so it was great to just kind of get right into it straight away. “

…Sheen has a much different approach to playing Aro than the human-friendly Cullens and credits the author for his inspiration.

“I love the thing in the books that Stephenie [Meyer] wrote about how these vampires are all – well, the Cullen family – really beautiful, and that’s what lures people into their web,” Sheen admits. “And yet, Aro is not like that.  She describes Aro as being not the same sort of thing. I like the idea that it’s his voice that lulls people in or his sort of demeanor rather than the way he looks, because he looks quite weird and scary. But yes, I’ve tried to go down that route [to]make him very mesmerizing to people, that his voice is gentle and soft. And yet, there’s something kind of unhinged about him.”

Read here for more of the interview with Micheal Sheen.

Q: Was the film more action heavy for the actors like Kristen in particular?

There’s certainly things Kristen had to do that I think she felt a little uncomfortable doing and I think it’s good because it makes Bella seem like she was uncomfortable doing it.  The other day we had her jumping off of a tower against green screens to represent her jump. We had a lot of underwater stuff, you know, when she’s drowning and stuff that she had to do, which is kind of new to Kristen. So I think there’s definitely been areas where she’s pushing herself as an actress just as Bella’s pushing herself as a character. So you kind of get to see it on Kristen’s face and you’re like yeah, that’s what I thought Bella’s was doing.

Q: How is the pandemonium escalated since the filming of the last movie? Is that much more intense with this one?

Apparently this guy Rob Pattinson has gotten to be a big celebrity.

Q: Who? (Laughs.)

He’s a much bigger celebrity than he was when we were making the film a year ago. It’s again, hasn’t been disruptive. It’s just pervasive. I think it’s the hardest thing is for the actors because their lives aren’t their lives as much as they used to be. You know? It’s harder for them to walk outside and go down the street and grab a burger because people are much more aware of them. You notice them on the street. Whereas I think when we were in Oregon, most people wouldn’t have just noticed them on the street because the movie hadn’t come out yet, so I don’t know. It’s the age-old thing for movie stars. The bigger they get the more people know who they are.

Q: Just out of curiosity, with this movie and then with the upcoming ‘Eclipse’ were you surprised at all by any of like the directors who were like actively campaigning to get the role like Drew Barrymore making a public campaign to direct it or have you been surprised by any actors who approached you to be in the sequels?

I honestly having now been involved with it for a year and a half to two years [and] it’s like nothing surprises me about this franchise. Like I wouldn’t be surprised if you know Steven Spielberg said ‘My daughter loves it and [I want to direct it].” It’s just one of those things where people have daughters, people have wives, people have moms.  Like all of a sudden it’s like one of those things that people want to be part of. I mean I think there have been several cases where we had actors who simply wanted to do it because they were fans of the books, not because their agent sent them a random script and they went ‘Oh that’s a great role. Great, we’d love to do that.’

See the entire interview at Hitfix.com where Wyck Godfrey also talked about Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

Last but not least, here are a couple of youtube videos of Ashley Greene’s interview by Alexa Chung of MTV.com and Ashley again with Kellan Lutz on the set of their new movie together, Warrior.